Month: June 2016

It’s June and look where we are, just about that time us gardeners get ready to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour. The flower shows are in full swing, inspired green-fingered folk up and down the country are watching their gardens fill with colour, fragrance and produce as the summer temperatures rise.

Well, dear readers, I’ve been giving my garden so much attention that something had to give and sadly, it was the blog. But I’m glad so much energy and attention has gone into growing – we’ve managed to transform the front space, but it hasn’t been an easy ride. The slugs and snails have been particularly invasive this year – chomping their way through whole petunias, sunflowers, courgettes, dahlias, nothing has been too much trouble for the hungry little fellas! But we do have a new raised bed.

This is netted, as well as housing the cucumber, it is has swiss chard, butterhead lettuce, Greek radish and spinach leaves. I picked out a cheeky snail that had eaten its way through the net…

The tomatoes, aubergine and sole surviving courgette are out in a mixture of patio tubs and growbags. I’m experimenting with quite a few varieties to see which thrive and fruit best.

The broadbeans have, like last year, been infested with aphids. This has attracted ants. So yesterday I soap sprayed them and then nature was on my side, as the torrential rain helped to reduce numbers. I’ll keep monitoring them. But many of the bean pods look ready to pick this week.

In other good news – the radishes are being picked as we need them and the flowers are really starting to come into their own. With the humid and high temperatures, everything seems to had a good growth spurt. Still no blooms on the sweatpeas yet but they continue to climb upwards.

I have a parental pride in the ‘foxy mixed’ foxgloves I grew from seed – it is a long process, starting them late last summer to overwinter. But they have been a true highlight since late May. Their towering tall pink spikes attracting pollinators to the garden from far and wide.

Summer is here – there is always more work to be done. But when the real working day is over, I get to retreat here and start work in the Greek Garden.